Scale of People Fleeing Congo Is ‘Off the Charts,’ Group Says
- Conflict displaced 997,000 people between January and June
- UN estimates more than 4 million people displaced in Congo
Congolese refugees
Photographer: Junior D. Kannah/AFP via Getty Images
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Almost a million people fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first half of the year, outpacing conflict zones including Syria and Yemen, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said.
Conflict forced about 997,000 people to flee their homes between January and June, the highest number in the world, the Geneva-based non-governmental group, part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a report published Wednesday. That figure surpassed the 922,000 displaced in the whole of 2016, it said.